Slow Cooker Buffalo Chicken Tacos
Slow Cooker Buffalo Chicken Tacos. Easy, epic football food!
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I am pretty much your stereotypical guy when it comes to football. I love watching any and all games. Bonus points if the game happens to be a bowl game or the playoffs. And football games require football food. You know what I mean. Dips, breadsticks, sliders, garlic knots, loaded tots. That’s what I mean by football food!
During a normal game, the commercials and halftime are the perfect opportunity to grab another breadstick and a drink. But not the Super Bowl. Nope. You aren’t allowed to miss a minute of the big game! If you had wandered off during last year’s game, you would have missed Seattle’s inexplicable decision to throw the ball after relying on running plays to get all the way down the field. (The ball was intercepted on the 1-yard line, and New England won the championship.)
But more importantly, if you had wandered off during last year’s halftime show, you would have missed Left Shark’s epic dance moves. (There was a serious movement to vote Left Shark as the Super Bowl MVP.)
Since you’re pretty much not allowed to leave for 3.5 hours (15.5 hours if you watch all of the pregame coverage…), you need easy food. Easy, delicious football food. And that’s where these Slow Cooker Buffalo Chicken Tacos come in.
This recipe couldn’t be easier if it tried. It’s literally a slow cooker, a bottle of wing sauce and some boneless chicken breasts. Start that bad boy up around noon, and you’ve got a slow cooker full of delicious shredded chicken just in time for the game. (This chicken shreds like a champ, too. I could barely pick up the chicken breasts with a fork. They literally just fell apart right there in the slow cooker.) And since you won’t be spending your time in the kitchen, you can work on your Left Shark dance moves instead.
Once you’ve got the chicken shredded, just pop it back in the slow cooker and let your guests make their own tacos throughout the game. In case you’re wondering, this slow cooker buffalo chicken is not very spicy at all. I know, I know. This is chicken literally cooked in a bottle of wing sauce. But it’s not spicy. Trust me. It’s got all the flavor of buffalo chicken without burning your face off. (If you like spicy food, then I suggest adding a few splashes of hot sauce to the recipe.) Now that the food for our Super Bowl party is all set, I just need to find a Left Shark outfit. Because if I had a Left Shark outfit, I would wear it during the game. And my moves are almost as epic as those of the real Left Shark.
Are your dance moves like Left Shark or Right Shark?
Wimpy wings or Melt-your-face-off wings?
Slow Cooker Buffalo Chicken Tacos
Ingredients
For the Chicken
- 4 boneless skinless chicken breasts
- 12 oz buffalo wing sauce Note: Wing sauce, not hot sauce!
- 1 oz. dry ranch dressing mix
For the Tacos
- 8 small flour tortillas
- ½ cup blue cheese or ranch dressing
- 3 cups lettuce shredded
- ¼ cup green onions sliced (plus more for garnishing)
- 1 stalk celery sliced
- {optional} ½ cup blue cheese crumbled (plus more for garnishing)
Instructions
For the Chicken
- Place chicken breasts in slow cooker. Pour wing sauce on top and then sprinkle ranch mix over wing sauce. Cover and cook on low for 6-7 hours.
- Once cooked, remove the chicken breasts to a plate and shred with 2 forks. Remove cooking liquid from slow cooker. Return shredded chicken to slow cooker along with ~¼ cup of cooking liquid; stir. (Note: Reserve the remaining cooking liquid for soups, pizzas, or other recipes.)
For the Tacos
- Assemble the tacos by spreading 1 Tbsp of blue cheese or ranch dressing evenly on top of each tortilla.
- Top with shredded chicken, lettuce, green onions and celery.
- {Optional} Sprinkle blue cheese evenly among tortillas before serving.
Chicken Tacos — a real favorite at my house! YES!
Chicken tacos are a favorite here, too! Thanks!! 🙂
Super bowl! This is one of those weeks when I can get me-time without being nagged for 3.5 hours, lol. Love this tacos and I’m craving for some now. It’s not too early for breakfast, right?
Haha! You gotta at least watch for the halftime show, Linda! And yes, you can totally have buffalo chicken for breakfast. Maybe just add a scrambled egg on top? 🙂
Hi David! I recently bought a new slow cooker and have been compiling recipes to use…this one just got put on top of the stack! We love blue cheese! Gary made crispy waffle fries topped with crumbled blue that were really good!
Our slow cooker is relatively new, too, Dorothy. I killed our old one a number of years back, and we just never replaced it. I’ve got some other fun slow cooker recipes up my sleeve, so stay tuned. But yes, put this one at the top of the list! I absolutely loved this chicken, and we made tacos for several nights with it. And we even used some leftovers to make a buffalo chicken pizza! 🙂 P.S. Now I’m craving waffle fries with blue cheese. Can I have those as a mid-morning snack?
Haha – my dance moves are way more “left” than the Left Sharks’ was! BTW – I saw some Left Shark outfits on Amazon – heck, Katy Perry might even hire you on to be her Left Left shark/cook especially when she sees you can make decadent 3-ingredient crock pot chicken! That fall-apart chicken sounds so delicious David, though seeing I like to have my face burned off I might need to add some XXX El Yucateco! Happy Monday my friend – hope y’all are staying warm!
Hahaha! If only Katy Perry would hire me to be the Left Left Shark. I could rock that role…and I bet I would give you a run for your money with my epic dance moves! 😉 We are indeed staying warm up here…it was 40° yesterday! Oh, and good call on adding a splash of El Yucateco to this buffalo chicken. Yum!
Haha David! you do love watching football!! My husband was the same yesterday but I kept on going to get more drink/coffee/snack or just to take a break!! 😛 I know unacceptable but to me food is what I look forward to more than the game so I am totally planning on making these for superbowl!! These look so delish and to be honest since last few days I have been craving homemade tacos!
Hye, I do love the game…but if the game isn’t good (and I feel like it isn’t very good more often than not), then I quickly turn to the commercials and the snack table instead! These are insanely easy…like embarrassingly easy, but they make one heck of an awesome taco! 🙂
I’m loving all your football food lately! I haven’t made homemade tacos in like forever, so this recipe will definitely make the menu at some point this season! Thanks for sharing! 🙂
Thanks, Olivia! I have gone a little football food crazy lately…but then again, football food is my favorite kind of comfort food. So when I have a good excuse to make it, why not go all out? 🙂 Slow cooker tacos aren’t used enough in my opinion…they’re so darned easy!!
YUM, these looks so delicious. Loving all the football food floating around the web right now! Makes me want to just sit and enjoy the game/food even more.
Tell me about it, Rachel! I love watching football, but the delicious football food everywhere right now is definitely a close runner up. 🙂
all your football food is so perfect for game days David! I just want to sit back and eat everything!
Haha…me, too, Manali! Football food is the best, and it’s perfect or this time of the year when it’s so cold and dreary outside.
These chicken tacos look perfect big game. They sound like they are full of flavor.
They are totally packed with flavor, Dawn! And surprisingly enough, these aren’t too spicy at all. These have got to be the easiest tacos to make of all time! 🙂
I would top these with blue cheese AND ranch dressing, and then some more, and some more.. 🙂 🙂
We don´t watch American football here in Spain but I know my fam would like it for the next big soccer game coming up this weekend 🙂
Now you’re talking, Johlene! Laura and I made a similar dressing one time, and we called it Branch Dressing. Blue cheese + ranch = win! I’m jealous of all the soccer games you guys have over there. Soccer is on the cusp of catching on big time here in the States, but it’s just not quite there yet. I’m hoping it gets there soon! 🙂
Yay for taco Tuesday.
Dave is obsessed with blue cheese, and tacos, so why have we never thought to put them together? Thanks for the idea – that might just have to be dinner tonight, but a veggie version.
You could totally make veggie blue cheese tacos! Dinner tonight = solved! And Dave will be one happy dude at the same time. Thanks, Dannii! 🙂
I’m also a football fan and full agree with you David, you cannot miss a moment of the Super Bowl. The commercials are usually pretty funny and you never know what these teams are going to do when the world is watching. I love the idea of using the crock pot to make and serve these tasty looking tacos. Tacos are the perfect football food because they are tasty, fun to eat, customizable, filling and easy to clean up. You rock 🙂
That’s the very problem with the Super Bowl, Mary! You can’t ever miss a moment because you might miss something epic like the Left Shark during last year’s halftime show. That’s where the crock pot comes in. I can’t be standing there in the kitchen all day getting ready for the Super Bowl! 🙂 Thank you so much!
First thing first, these Buffalo Chicken Tacos are mouth watering and I want some with lots of hot sauce on top. Second, I don’t mind when men gather to watch any game, but why they laugh hard only when they have a glass full of drink in their hands? – Me tired of cleaning 🙁 –
Hahaha…you’re hilarious, Muna! I think it’s part of the unwritten guy code somewhere that we can only laugh when holding a full drink. 🙂 Thanks so much, and I hope you don’t have too much cleaning this year!!
But what about this year’s half-time performers, David. I hope you’re clearing the coffee table and replacing it with a completely yellow-themed spread, except that the centerpiece will be a massive vertices stack of of onion rings – you know how they serve them pyramid-style on a dowel? Then you serve up some burgers (with yellow nustard and no ketchup), and you ask everyone if they like it.
Yeah, I’m not so sure about this year’s halftime show. But different strokes for different folks, right? And hey, there’s always a chance that Left Shark will make a cameo appearance! That alone will keep me watching. Well, that and the massive vertices stack of onion rings.
David, are you sure you’re that steriotypical guy? I though a stereotypical football fan should eat, besides the mentioned food, something lavender. Or I get it confused with another game? I don’t watch football (substitute for hockey, soccer, tennis, curling, etc depending the season). But I love the food you created, especially the incorporation of the blue cheese. I hope this food is allowed for non fans of tv games too. Anyways, I can pretend to be a football fan if you promise to send some delicious football snacks;)
Hey, I didn’t know you watched curling! You should come down and watch me play a game sometime. And by come down, I mean bring boxes and boxes of lavender cookies. Deal?
The favorite part of any football game for me is the food! I know!!! Crazy…but true! Chicken tacos….sound perfect to me!
That isn’t crazy at all, Kathy! Super Bowl food is definitely a highlight of most parties…and it often becomes the #1 highlight if the game isn’t very entertaining! 🙂
These tacos are awesome! I’m not at all into football but I do watch the Super Bowl (and stuff my face).
Thanks, Ashley! You can totally get away with not being a football fan for the Super Bowl. Plus, you can always say you’re there for the halftime show…even if you’re really just there for the food! 🙂
These tacos look amazing! Love the flavours! Definitely the perfect football food! Great recipe, David! 🙂
Thanks so much, Jess! Nothing beats some delicious tacos that take almost no time at all to prepare. 🙂
This is a perfect Superbowl food! I love the fact that the Buffalo chicken is made in a slow cooker – makes it so easy! These tacos look delicious!
This recipe is almost embarrassingly easy, Melanie! Like I would kind of want to hide how I make these tacos just because they are so darned easy…but they taste so darned good! 🙂 Yay for Super Bowl deliciousness!
This recipe has everything I love in it~ hot wing sauce, chicken, blue cheese all in a tortilla!! EPIC! Oh, I’m not wimpy with my sauce so I’d add a few splashes of hot sauce. I would also pay money to see you in a left shark suit dancing! 🙂
Hey, how much money are we talking about here? Because I could be convinced to dress up in a shark suit and pull out all of my epic dance moves! Maybe with a taco in one hand…err, fin! 🙂
Oh man. I think you need to do a tutorial on all things the game. Seriously.
In the meantime, I’ll be noshing on these tacos which look AMAZING!
Sounds good! Here’s my tutorial: (1) Turn on tv. (2) Grab a plate of delicious gameday food. (3) Don’t get up from couch for at least 3.5 hours. 🙂
This recipe looks simple yet one of those with just the right WOW factor for my guests! I LOVE Frank’s Wing Sauce and we put it on everything from salmon to scrambled eggs so I’ll be making this soon. Love that it’s not too spicy for those who don’t want it (I can just add some sliced jalapenos or hot sauce on the table for those who want it hot). Nice photos too. 🙂
We totally love Frank’s Wing Sauce around here, too, Sally! It’s crazy that a whole bottle goes into the slow cooker, but yet the chicken isn’t overly spicy. It’s just loaded with flavor instead. Thanks so much for stopping by, and happy taco-ing! 🙂
You are cracking me up and impressing me with all of the football stats. You are indeed a major football fan. I enjoy it, but in all honesty still don’t fully understand it. Over time I “get it” but then some new ruling will happen or Dave will say, “but not in this case, see because of blah, blah, blah…” and I’m lost again. BUT not on these awesome tacos and all that bleu cheese. Slow cooker recipes are perfect for Game Day. Got one coming out tomorrow myself Bring it!
Guilty as charged, Kevin. I am indeed a big football fan…both the game and the traditional football comfort food! Sounds like Dave has the game covered in your house. Honestly, the Super Bowl is perfect because it has enough to keep everyone happy: the game, the commercials, halftime, party games and of course appetizers!!